Logo: to the web site of the Swedish Defence University

Civilian control over military forces is a prerequisite within democracies in the study of civil-military relations. This requirement extends to military intelligence, as they are a part of the military. However, this relationship needs to balance secrecy with transparency concerns, a relationship which can prove difficult. In Sweden during the 1970’s, this discussion came to a fore when the intelligence organisation IB was revealed to the public. This sparked an ongoing debate within the academic community regarding the limits of intelligence organisations authority, their need for secrecy and the government’s ability to control them.

This thesis aims to investigate IB and the government’s control over it during 1965-1973, the years it operated as the sole military intelligence organisation in Sweden. With perspectives derived from Peter Gills thoughts on intelligence control and oversight, this thesis examines the mechanism of intelligence control and inquiry that were present in Sweden during the relevant timeframe. The findings are then judged with Gill’s concepts as a framework, in order to evaluate IB´s role as an intelligence organisation within a liberal democracy. These findings will thereafter be compared with the image of IB as presented by leading contemporary politicians and intelligence commanders, in order to give nuance to the findings.

The thesis will show, with support of the theory and methodology, that IB can’t be described as a national intelligence agency, but as a political police. Its lack of transparency, secret existence and politicly motivated goals are the main reasons for this result. The absence of key mechanism of control as described by Gill, made it impossible for the organisation to be controlled, with some reservations for the ruling party’s ability to do so. It also contextualises these findings with the presented opinions of the contemporary actors.

These results shed new light on intelligence accountability during the cold war in Sweden. It also reaffirms previous findings on IB with the use of new perspectives. The Thesis provides another lens to view Swedish intelligence history through and contributes to that field of history.